No. 2 Bulldogs Are Third At The Dellenbaugh

After Winning B at the Ivy Championship Last Weekend, Sophomores Fauer and Custo Greig Win A Division This Weekend

PROVIDENCE, RI. – The No. 2 Yale women's sailing team finished third overall at the 26th Brad Dellenbaugh Women's Interconference Regatta this weekend. The event was hosted by Brown University and sailed in club 420s.

Racing conditions were significantly different between the two days of racing. On Saturday, in addition to cold temperatures and precipitation, competitors faced light easterly winds in the range of four to eight knots and "lots of current… [which] made racing very challenging," as reported by the race committee. Six races in A division and four races in B division were completed by the end of the first day.

Sunday morning welcomed sailors with sunny skies, but more light wind. After a short postponement though, a southeasterly breeze filled in which ultimately produced winds as strong as 16 knots. Another six races in A division and eight races in B division were completed, for a regatta total of 12 races per division.

Leading the Bulldogs this weekend were sophomores Marlena Fauer and Eugenia Custo Greig who, after 12 races, finished first place in A division by 8 points. In a 17 boat fleet, Fauer and Custo Greig did not finish a single race outside of the top ten and they finished more than half of all of their races in the top 5.

The fact that the sophomore Bulldogs won their division without ever actually winning a race supports a remark made by Fauer pertaining to how she and her teammate were able to remain so consistent. In addition to being "patient with [their] decisions and waiting for other people to make mistakes," Fauer thought that she and Custo Greig "also took risk at the right time." "[We] didn't try to win every race right from the start," said Fauer.

As the varsity sailing team's head coach, Zachary Leonard '89, says, "the same risky decisions that can win you the race, can lose it for you too." Fauer and Custo Greig clearly took that wisdom to heart this weekend and they were rewarded.

Yale's B division boat also sailed well. Freshman skipper Morgan Kiss and senior crew Isabelle Elliman finished sixth in B division, cashing in five top-five finishes, including two race victories. However, some deeper finishes kept them from breaking into the top five overall. Two of those double-digit finishes came at the end of the regatta. One as a result of the race committee calling Kiss and Elliman "over early" on the starting line and the other was partially attributed to their lightweight team not having enough size to combat the stronger, late-afternoon breeze.

The Bulldogs continue to finish in the top three as a team at major interconference regattas. One month remains until the end of the regular spring season and they will be traveling to Boston, Mass., next weekend for the 44th President's Trophy Regatta.